Aurochs in the Czech Republic

Long long ago when man was just another animal roaming the wilderness, not superior to any other creature and certainly no safer. Man’s daily quest for survival started with the basics: food, water and shelter. On a good day there was time for other pursuits; maybe there was time to make a flint tool or a hide shawl. At night huddled around a fire in a cave man began making art, it started with a hand dipped in ochre or some other medium and then pressed against the cave wall to say “I was here”.

From there cave art developed into a narrative of the day’s activities: what man did, what man saw. Man was not thinking how to make things better or what his rival tribe was doing. When he had down time man was reliving daily scenes and telling stories through cave art. Often the scenes depicted were of animals or more particularly of man hunting animals.

In France and Spain there are cave art images showing hunters with pointy sticks trying to bring down muscular cattle with long up turned horns. These cattle were called aurochs (latin name: Bos primigenius).

Aurochs were much bigger than today’s beasts and had much more aggressive temperament. Aurochs survived until fairly recently. They survived ice ages and millennia of hunting but they did not survive the scientific revolution of the 17^th Century. Cross breeding of aurochs with cattle that were easier to handle resulted in their demise. The last full blood auroch cow died in 1627.  Their genes can be found in almost all modern cattle breeds today.

You would think the story of the auroch would end there, but no. In the early 1920’s two German brothers, Heinz and Lutz Heck thought the auroch should and could be bought back from extinction. Using Spanish fighting bulls as a base stock they began a program of back breeding to bring the auroch genetics to the fore. Within two years they announced their success with a new/old breed of cattle.

Nowadays these cattle are called Heck Cattle; although massive they are smaller than a true auroch but like the auroch they are known for their feisty temperament.

We had just crossed the German border into the Czech Republic en-route to Cesky Krumlov and were driving down a winding rural road when we saw a glimpse of an enormous bull standing alone in a paddock. We pulled over for a look and recognised the beast to be a Heck bull.

The small lane next to the paddock had a herd of Heck cattle. I began taking pictures. As I became more confident and edged closer to the fence, I noticed another bull and he noticed me. 

He began bellowing and digging at the ground throwing dirt into the air. The noise he was making was higher pitched and more urgent than any sound made by a bull that I have ever heard. I would be lying to say that it wasn’t an unsettling experience and I began to wonder if the fence would contain him if he wanted to charge. Slowly and without making eye contact I backed away.

Later in the safety of Hotwheels I wondered what the real auroch would be like…. bigger, more powerful, more aggressive and louder. I then thought of what it would be like to try hunting such a beast armed only with my wits and a pointy stick.  I concluded in the age of the caveman I would have been a vegetarian.